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Every year, at the time of the influenza season, myths and misconceptions about the flu vaccine are emerging.
Some people avoid getting vaccinated because they think it does not work well enough to make it worthwhile. Some people think that they are too healthy to need it. And some fear it makes them sick, perhaps remembering when they were touched and became ill soon after.
"That's what the cab driver and the grocery store person always tell me:" The flu shot will give me the flu, "says Mark Thompson, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Atlanta. "It's a persistent myth."
Despite years of consistent messages from health care providers about the dangers of influenza and the protective (and safe) power of the influenza vaccine, many people still have false beliefs about both. One of the reasons is that influenza, technically known as influenza, encompasses a complicated and ever-changing group of viruses, says William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.
Some strains cause relatively benign diseases similar to cold. Others cause global pandemics. (And many respiratory viruses – even the most dangerous ones, and others that manifest themselves soon after being vaccinated against the flu – are not flu at all.)
Influenza viruses also mutate constantly and without warning, which means that people's experiences do not apply from one year to the next. "As we say in the case of influenza," If you have been attending an influenza season, you have already seen an influenza season, "Schaffner said." It's like fighting a new fight every year. "
Some years are less successful than others, despite the constant vigilance of a global surveillance network that works all year to isolate and analyze influenza strains in circulation. In the months following the experts' decision to select the strains for inclusion in the annual influenza vaccine, viruses can mutate and new strains can appear, making the vaccine less effective than expected.
This is what happened last year, when the influenza vaccine was effective at about 40%, but only at 25% effective against H3N2, a particularly virulent strain. The result was a record number of hospitalizations and child deaths.
Some experts fear that these efficiency figures will cause unnecessary confusion and mistrust of the vaccine. According to the CDC, people who get vaccinated are 40 to 60 percent less likely to visit the doctor in case of influenza infection in years where the chances are equal. This may not seem like much if people expect the flu vaccine to be comparable to measles or polio.
But a 40% effective vaccine has a 40% chance of completely preventing infection, says Schaffner, adding to millions of people protected from serious illness and hundreds of thousands from being excluded from hospitals. And complete protection is not the only useful measure.
Even when people get the flu, new research shows they would be better off if they were vaccinated. In a 2018 study, Thompson and colleagues analyzed data from more than 3,000 patients admitted to two hospitals in New Zealand between 2012 and 2015. Of the influenza patients, those who had been vaccinated had 59% less chances of being admitted to the intensive care unit. . And even if they were at the ICU, the vaccinated patients spent an average of four days less in the hospital.
"As you move down the continuum of severity, this study suggests that the vaccine continues to provide protection," Thompson said. "It gives us extra ammunition to talk about people's worries."
Other recent studies have shown that:
Adults are five times more likely to die of influenza if they are not vaccinated.
– Children are twice as likely to die of the flu when they are vaccinated.
– Pregnant women are less likely to be hospitalized if they get the flu shot, which also protects their newborns.
The influenza vaccine also appears to protect people from persistent complications of the flu, such as heart attacks and strokes, which become more likely during a period of inflammation that may follow an initial infection, Schaffner says. And the vaccine remains particularly important for frail elderly people or at the threshold of frailty. For them, the flu can be the first domino of a series of adverse health consequences.
Until now, this year's flu season is starting slowly and looks pretty conventional, with sporadic cases and small outbreaks beginning to occur nationwide. The H1N1 strain is circulating and, for now, the vaccine appears to be a good partner, "said Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's vaccine research group in Rochester, Minnesota.
But cases tend to peak in February and much remains to be done. This is a lesson that Poland learned in the winter of 2000 when it was a member of the committee that decided on the strains to be introduced into the vaccine. That year, the flu season began to be tamed. Then, in early November, a new variant appeared in the United States and quickly spread, resulting in a particularly bad flu season.
According to Poland, hundreds of millions of new influenza mutants are forming every few minutes. "People tend to think that the flu is a static virus, but it's a reservoir of incestuous viruses," he says. "Prediction is impossible."
Studies consistently show that the most effective motivator is an insistent recommendation from a health care provider. But less than half of Americans were vaccinated against influenza last year.
To avoid the annual battle, some scientists are working on a universal vaccine that would cover all strains. Others try to make the influenza vaccine easier to administer with patches or other methods that do not require needles.
At the moment, there are nine options, says Poland, including a version for the elderly, a newly re-approved nasal fog, a vaccine made from cells instead of eggs, and another that can be administered by injection, a high pressure jet. of liquid. Poland recommends that people discuss with their health care providers what is best for them.
Regarding the concern that the flu vaccine may give you, Grider reassures you.
"It's a vaccine made with a killed virus," he says. "It's literally impossible for him to give you the flu."
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